National Voter File

Current team

Here's the gist

The free and open database for every registered voter in America, built by volunteers. What Stripe was to PayPal, we want to be for voter data. Today, it is incredibly expensive to run for office, and only those equipped with the right tools and connections can run truly effective campaigns. National Voter File is reducing the costs and barriers to accessing the data and building the tools to run an effective campaign.

Problem

Campaigns are traditionally very expensive and require several competencies to run. This means that only rich, well-networked people can run effective campaigns. We want to democratize this process so that anyone can participate.

The foundation of a political campaign is voter registration data. Everything is built upon your voter file, which often costs money and is sent to you in an old-school format (even on disc at times!).

Because the competition is so low, companies like VAN (DNC’s exclusive partner) and Nationbuilder provide ineffective services for a very high cost – pricing out most people out of ever running for office. How is that democratic?

Goal

National Voter File will make all of this data free, up-to-date, and easily accessible via a REST API for anyone that is running for elected office.

Additionally, we are going to publish an "NVF compliant" standard that will allow app developers to build state-of-the-art technology for campaigns of all sizes. This will allow those without wealth and a strong network to run for office and influence our public policy. More young people! More women! More minorities! More teachers!

More qualified candidates running for office, all with access to state-of-the-art open source tools and data-sharing among allied campaigns… means a more representative democracy for all Americans.

Skills

Data science, Python, Javascript

Point of contact

Sahil Lavingia (founder/CEO at Gumroad)

Funding

$10,000 (we would like to raise more money)

Can you help?

Yes, I can help with ...

Availability (hrs per week)

Made by people, for the people. Contact us at hi@techreserve.org.
This for everyone working hard everyday to make the world a better place.